So, $2,000 for a week is too high??

[disneysnowflake]

I was asked by the wife of a guy my husband works with to get her a quote for a trip to WDW. THere are 3 of them (DH, wife and 6 year old girl). They don't have internet.

She wanted 7 nights with 7 day hopper tickets in late November. She wanted to stay at either a value or a mod.

I told her the exact quote from WDW's website. With the dining plan and staying at a value she was looking at around $2100. Without the dining it was more like $1400.

She gasped when I told her. She asked me if the $1400 including airfare. I said no. She said, "Geez, that is totally ridiculous. What a waste of money."

Then she said for the price of the 3 trips we have taken so far we could have purchased a new value priced car. We went on a trip for 3 weeks and could have bought a car.

This is like the 3rd time this year I've been asked to help price out Disney trips and all 3 times I'm met with gasps and no way and that's ridiculous.

Maybe I'm odd. I didn't think it sounded that expensive.

 

[budbeerlady]

We have priced other ideas but they would have cost more money than going to disney. So disney it is! What can you do everyday for the same cost. Your hotel might be less but you still need to go do things everyday and that racks up the cost.

Think of it as less people that will be in the park with you!

 

[ukwildcat]

Don't you just love it when people ask for your help in planning a Disney vacation and then criticize you on how you spend your money?

How many memories are you going to get out of a new car? I'd rather go to my grave with great family memories than a new car. But that's just me, maybe I'm crazy.

 

[disneysnowflake]

Well, if you're crazy then I'm crazy, too.
We have so many great memories. I wouldn't trade it for anything. My boys (even my 16 yo) will say, "Remember the time we did.. whatever.. at Disney? That was so much fun."

 

[Chicago526]

As a travel agent, I've stoped being amazed at what people's price expectations are for any aspect of travel. I've seen people book $12,000 vacations and not blink, and others baulk at a $110 airfare on coast-to-coast flights.

I do find though, that I have the most trouble with people who do absolutly no research on their own and/or don't really travel much. They have no frame of referance of what travel costs, so can't really judge a good deal from an average deal from a bad deal.

 

[NotUrsula]

It was "late November". What kind of a dolt expects ANY travel within the USA to be inexpensive at that time of year?

 

[redbirdgrad]

That woman must live in fantasyland. She should look at, if she has any idea, what it would cost her to go down the road from her house and stay at a Holiday Inn - $80? would be a good rate for an HI Express, times 7 nights = $615 including taxes, local amusement park for 3 people for 7 days - $25 a person per day = $525 - total for HI Express and local park = $1,140 - why do people think Disney is sooooo expensive, price it out. I love when people say you're going to Disney again - because they can't afford it, however, they go to Wisconsin Dells or Cedar Point for 4 days and pay $225 a night for a water park hotel and spend $$$ on other tourist stops and food.

 

[mytwotinks]

I think what people don't get is that travel in general is a lot of $$$! I don't think that Disney is any more $ than any other tourist attraction. You just pay up front so you spend it all at once. I kinda like that. Once we get there we don't have to think about what we can afford to do and what we should skip. It is all included (pretty much). We are always having friends ask how much the movies and shows are once you are in the parks. I have found the resorts to be less $$ than most convenient hotels in larger or more tourist focosed cities.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Well, when you consider the marketing WDW has promoting a week for a family of four for $1500, I think that price would have been a no-brainer. That price is tickets and hotel only. So add Dining and airfare, and DUH! it isn't going to be $1500 anymore!

We are leaving tomorrow on a trip that will easily top $6000 (shh! Don't tell DH!) but we are going again in December and it won't be anywhere near that much. The December trip will be with APs (which is a huge part of the expense for the August trip), in a Value resort for just 4 nights. DS turns 10 after this trip so we won't do Dining Plan again unless he starts to eat more than a gnat.

I don't think people really stop to consider how much it costs to go other places. Yes, you could buy a Kia for the price of several Disney vacations. I don't want a Kia. If someone else wants to stay home and buy a car then more power to them! I'm going to Disney World!

 

[goodeats]

WDW is a world class resort destination. The prices are not unreasonable. I guess they could do it cheaper by staying offsite, but not by much.

Compared to the price of Hawaii, Europe, Cruising, etc, it's actually less.

 

[disneysnowflake]

Well, when you consider the marketing WDW has promoting a week for a family of four for $1500, I think that price would have been a no-brainer.

You know, I mentioned that to her. She thought $1500 for a family of 4 ads INCLUDED airfare. Then she thought since there were only 3 she would get 7 nights value with 7 day tickets INCLUDING airfare for around $1100.

 

[dementia412]

I'm one of those people with no vacation expiriance, and I have to say when I started really pricing WDW my jaw dropped. When I was a kid we would go on two week vacations for 500 bucks or less, and as an adult I've never been on a real vacation. I had no idea how crazy the prices are... the most expensive hotel I've stayed at was about 50 bucks and that was someone elses money, and the only time I flew it was also on someone else's dime.

and yeah I think about how we could buy a used car with the WDW vacation money, but it's our money, so we'll spend it as we please.

 

[swilshire]

I think all the cheap package deals for other places also tend to make the inexperienced travelers expect they can get the same for Disney. I had a friend many years ago who was a travel agent. With two small kids, we tended to go to Disney most years for vacation. She was always telling me all the exotic places she could send me to for less.

I think Disney prices are high, as well. As long as we all continue going there, they will always be high. It's just a fact of life that DISers deal with.

We went to Hawaii for three weeks this year. If you exclude transportation costs, we spent far less there than we would have in Orlando. We'll be back at Disney in December, but we'll know it will cost us.

Sheila

 

[PaulaSue]

That woman must live in fantasyland. She should look at, if she has any idea, what it would cost her to go down the road from her house and stay at a Holiday Inn - $80? would be a good rate for an HI Express, times 7 nights = $615 including taxes, local amusement park for 3 people for 7 days - $25 a person per day = $525 - total for HI Express and local park = $1,140 - why do people think Disney is sooooo expensive, price it out. I love when people say you're going to Disney again - because they can't afford it, however, they go to Wisconsin Dells or Cedar Point for 4 days and pay $225 a night for a water park hotel and spend $$$ on other tourist stops and food.

LOL, What park is that? Heresheypark is $42 (ages 9 and up) but you can get it discounted for $36 usually. A Kids ticket (3-8) is $25 and sometimes you can get it $2 off. TG we have season passes but I am curious what park is that cheap. My family loves the rides.

~~~~~
DH and I were speaking about this a few weeks ago. My parents invited us to the beach and we saw the rooms cost there. More than double what the CBR was and that is just to lay on the beach.

 

[golden1]

I think that most people balk when they see the total price of the package all together. On a lot of trips, it is a few hundred here, a few hundred there and while it might not seem like so much $$$ when you add it up, it really is. You can stay off-site and drive and do disney for $1000 a week if you want to. You can stay at the GF concierge and spend $10,000 a week.

 

[tabrizia]

Honestly I don't find Disney that expensive either. I find whenever I am pricing a vacation, even with the hotel price free, it still costs between 2 and 3k, especially since a lot of places in the US you need a rental car, which shoots up the price really fast.

I mean there are some vacations I can take for almost free, but that is only because my parents and aunt and uncle own a lake house, so then all I have to pay for is plane tickets and food, since I can borrow a car, but even that ends up being around $500 for a week.

I am sure if I looked I could find some really cheap vacations, but honestly I've done the notel motels and I don't want to stay in any of them more then one night ever again. So I'll live with spending at least $80 on my hotel for it to be semi decent.

To be fair I could do Europe for about what Disney is costing me, and I would find that a lot of fun too, but this year our trip is Disney, so we're going for a nice trip down there and it really isn't more then us going on almost any other vacation.

 

[Gabkatt]

Ya know its funny, people find some pretty ridiculous things to spend their money on and then criticize you for a vacation! I have an uncle who about fell out of his chair when he heard how much we spend at Disney every year. He lists off all the things we could have done with that money. I've never said this to him but he has bills up to his neck, he is devoirced, spends very little time with his kids and he just bought a motorcycle! Now I could see the comments if we were struggling but I own my own business and my DW is a Federal Employee.
We work hard and we play hard! As far as I am concerned, WDW is part of our lives, my uncle would say "you need to have priorities" as if taking time with my DW & kids are not the greatest priority!!!

 

[RedAlfalfa]

Ok- I am not the average Disney family since we live in FL- but I am going in 2 weeks and the entire 7 nights will cost about $800. I am staying at ASMu and only had to buy the min 1 day ticket (2 adults and 1 child- to get free dining. Since we live in FL we have season passes ) But if she was balking at the price she could always cut out the hopper tickets. There are always ways to cut out some expenses if they were that interested in going (without taking away from the magic). Cut out a day at the parks and spend it at DTD, swimming in the pool, check out the Boardwalk. So many other Disney things w/o spending a penny (on a ticket at least).
Even if we didn't luck out living in FL w/ the seasonal pass I know I'd still be going every year (or every other year at the least). Seeing my kids enjoy it makes it worth every penny.

 

[princess mom of 4]

I priced out a trip to Dollywood in TN for this summer at around $1200 for my family of me, DH and 4 kids for four nights, park tickets, food, etc... Although that was way cheaper than our last three family vacations to WDW, we decided not to go... I'll just keep saving up another $2500 so we can do what we REALLY want to do - return to the World!